


Suspicion

by Aria6



Series: A Coyote's Stories [55]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Aizen is an Asshole, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death - Sort of, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-13 02:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3364367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria6/pseuds/Aria6





	Suspicion

_Did I see that?_

Coyote Starrk stared into the air that had just recently held the Segunda Espada, Barragan Luisenbalm. And he wondered, with a horrified kind of wonder, if he was right about what he had seen. Surely he had to be wrong. Surely…?

He allowed his gaze to travel to Halibel and the small taichou, to where they were trading blows. He examined the flows of power and tried to determine if he was correct. It was much harder since the power being released was less but he thought he could see…

"Hey, Espada!" He tried to ignore that person. Probably just a fraccion. "You worried now that your buddy is dead?" That caught his attention and he turned to look at the owner of the voice. NOT a fraccion. Who were they? They were not in shinigami uniforms.

"OI! You shut up! You – Starrk?" Lilinette's voice suddenly came from his mouth as he ceded control to the other half of his soul.

"Take over for me. I need to see." And he was better at this sort of thing than Lilinette. She was too impulsive, too quick to run into things. He could sense her confusion but there was no time to enlighten her as the strangers attacked. Starrk kept his attention on the surroundings, although it was hard when his head was going so many directions. Was he right? But how could he be right? It was impossible… wasn't it?

It was not. As the fight went on he became more and more certain that he was correct. He could feel the power surges, detect the way the energy was flowing and it was flowing in only one direction. Anger was beginning to build in his chest, a rage more terrible than anything he'd felt in his entire life. If this was true, it was a betrayal beyond anything he could have envisioned.

"Starrk, what's wrong?" Lilinette asked with his mouth as she used their wolves on the two strangers. Then he responded, also using his mouth. No doubt it looked odd to anyone watching.

"Everything." He said, his anger so real and tangible to him that he almost expected to see smoke rising from his skin. Lilinette could feel the force of it and he could feel her fear and confusion, but there was no time to enlighten her. "Give me back control." He asked and she immediately switched places, almost relieved. Not that she minded being in charge – she relished it – but Lilinette knew something was extremely wrong.

Finding a good spot in the battle to just talk, though, was difficult. Starrk handled matters by staying teasingly out of reach, acting like he was trying to lure them into something. They'd tried it on him, after all. Why not return the favor? And that would not make Aizen too suspicious.

The attack from the shadows almost got him. It would have, if he hadn't been keeping himself alert to the power flows. As it was, he _saw_ the power flow from behind him and into the sky. That was enough warning for him to lunge forward, avoiding the strike. He launched himself into the air then, not entirely knowing the nature of the attack but sensing he shouldn't be on the ground. As he turned and saw the shinigami emerge from the shadow he was still casting, he knew he was right.

"Excellent reaction time, Espada-san!" The burned and battered shinigami said with a smile. Starrk, however, could not appreciate the humor.

"Not at all. I saw it." He said shortly before drifting closer. "Taichou-san, listen to me." Starrk kept his voice low and intense, hoping the man would pay attention rather than using the moment to attack again. "Look over there. What do you see?" He gestured to Halibel and her opponent while turning his body slightly, keeping the two oddballs in sight. He didn't trust them although they seemed to be listening. Taichou-san – what was his name again? – glanced at the other battle out of the corner of his eye, not fully turning his head.

"I see Hitsugaya fighting your comrade. Third Espada, correct?" He asked and Starrk waved that away, frustrated.

"Tercero… look at the power. Where is it going?" He pressed and the man frowned, actually turning his head a bit as he realized the Primera was deadly serious. "I spotted it first with Barragan's death." His voice was rough with the force of his ire. Then the shinigami blinked and suddenly gave his full attention to the battle.

"…I see it." He said before turning his full attention back to Starrk. "That's what you meant when you said you saw it. You saw the power flow from your shadow to Aizen?" Starrk nodded.

"Just as I saw him devour what remained of Barragan's soul collection." He said harshly and there was a horrified gasp from his weapons. He distantly saw the two false-hollows exchanging a glance, but his attention was mostly on Taichou-san.

"NO WAY! Aizen wouldn't do that Starrk! That's – wrong! And evil! And – and bad! Really bad!" Lilinette said, which wasn't the most coherent protest he'd ever heard. "He can't do that!"

"He is." Starrk said, tasting the bitterness of it. "That's why he brought us here." He knew that now, with an absolute certainty. "He wants us to die, although preferably after we kill a shinigami or two." The stranger with the weird hair was frowning but the one with the blonde hair was going pale. That one understood. "After all, they are all powerful souls. More for the hogyoku." His hands tightened on his guns.

"You seem a touch upset, Espada-san." The battered man observed and Starrk smiled. It was dry as a bone and not the least bit happy. "Perhaps – " Then his eyes went wide and Starrk saw the shock on his face a moment before he felt the pain.

_Complete Hypnosis._ Starrk thought almost calmly as he looked down and saw the sword that had impaled him from behind. _How do you fight that?_ How did you fight against someone who could control all of your senses? He'd thought he was seeing the power flows going to Aizen, high up in the sky. And he was still sure the power flows _were_ going to him, but perhaps he'd never been in the sky at all. How long had he been listening?

The wound itself was nothing. He'd had worse and Aizen hadn't aimed for anything vital. But the grasping power of the hogyoku, deep inside his body, was everything. Starrk vaguely heard Lilinette screaming, felt the anguish as a sucking hunger, more terrible than his own, reached out for him. And he felt the nature of the hogyoku. It was not peaceful. It felt like a vortex of screams, souls writhing in a kind of spiritual torment. His remaining breath came short as he struggled, trying to find some way to free himself from the pull.

He couldn't. He knew it and gave up hope for himself, instead giving everything to something else, something even dearer to him than his own life…

" _STARRK NO!"_ Lilinette's tinny shriek abruptly shifted to a more normal voice as he forced her out of him. The guns vanished and the little girl appeared. She lunged towards him but an arm went around her chest, dragging her back. Starrk very briefly met grey eyes and saw the grim awareness there, the acknowledgement of what he had just done.

_Take care of her, taichou-san._ Having saved what little he could, Starrk could no longer resist. He was vaguely aware of his own voice crying out as his soul collection broke apart, sucked into the morass of agony that was the hogyoku. Starrk lost any grip on reality as is body fractured, broken apart and vanishing like mist.

Then there was nothing but pain.

* * *

Shunsui gripped the struggling arrancar girl as Aizen flicked his blade to the side, removing the blood. The smile on his face… Shunsui could hardly recall the last time he'd felt such a raw desire to kill.

Love and Rose both struck out at him but Aizen caught Rose's weapon with his hand, smiling as he used a kido on Love with a single word. Then he pulled Rose to him, neatly slicing the Visored in half. Shunsui let go of the girl as blood exploded from the wound and he _saw_ the power flow into Aizen. He hadn't killed Love, for some reason. Was it because Rose was stronger?

"Go to Ukitake!" He snapped as the little girl wept. She nodded but then looked down, pausing in confusion.

"Where's he…?" She said and Shunsui felt his heart freeze in his chest. Very briefly turning his attention to the ground, he felt sick. Juushiro was gone. There was nothing but bloodstains.

In that brief moment of inattention, Aizen went for his next target… the Tercero Espada. She had missed Starrk's death but now that he was unmasked, Aizen seemed to feel there was no point in allowing the fight to continue further. His blade took Halibel full on the back and Shunsui grit his teeth as Toshiro stared, completely taken aback by the abrupt end to his battle.

"Just stay out of the way!" He told the girl before joining the other taichou in facing Aizen. He could hardly even feel the power he owned properly, but he knew the power Starrk had held. Aizen had absorbed that, along with Love, Ukitake… _I'll make him pay for this, Juu._

Although he wasn't sure how.

* * *

Shunsui watched grimly as he waited for the verdict. Lilynette Gingerbuck was sitting beside him. He hadn't meant to adopt the arrancar girl but she had nothing in the world, and his soul was hurting from the loss of his best friend. She was becoming a kind of mascot for the Eighth. Right now she was glaring at Aizen. If emotions had any power, the failed tyrant would be dead where he sat.

When the verdict was read, Shunsui felt pained but resigned. There was no way to kill Aizen so they would have to-

"NO WAY!" Shunsui blinked as Lilynette erupted form her seat. "You can't leave him alive! You can't!"

"Lilynette, hush." She couldn't speak out at the trial like this – but she evaded his grasping hand.

"Don't you get it?! They're hurting in there!" That made him pause. Hurting? "Souls don't hurt in a hollow's soul collection! It's like sleepin'! The hogyoku ain't like that! I'm part of Starrk, I FELT what that evil bastard did to him!" Tears were sliding down her face as she stared at Aizen malevolently. "They're hurting! It's like, like, a vortex of pain and they're _trapped_! You can't let him keep Starrk! And your friends! They're all hurting!" She finished, panting, and Aizen's laugh rang out, easily cutting through the murmurs of the courtroom.

"She is absolutely right." He said, amused, and Shunsui's breath caught in his throat as Aizen looked at him. The smile on his face… "How will you free them from me? Poor Ukitake… do you wonder what he is feeling right now, Kyoraku?" Shunsui knew the man was trying to enrage him, make him do something stupid. And while he was too wise for that, others were not. There was a scream from the Visored and Hiyori and Love both had to be restrained.

"Silence!" Yamamoto's reiatsu filled the room like a choking cloud. Aizen did not flinch but he did stop speaking, his lips curled in a wicked little smile. "Aizen will be held until he can be executed. Kurotsuchi, you will work with Urahara and devote every resource you have to this end." He said sternly, before gazing at the representative of the jury. The man nodded.

"We only did not impose the death penalty because of the lack of a method. We will amend the ruling." He said, which was a relief. But why would the nobles of the new Central 46 wish to keep Aizen alive? No reason at all. Shunsui gently put an arm around Lilynette, who sniffed and suddenly clung to him.

Hopefully, the two scientists would be able to remove Aizen from this world and free the souls he had taken.


End file.
